If only the Los Angeles Kings gripped their sticks as gently as they gripped their Stanley Cup banner.
After raising the team's first championship banner into the rafters at Staples Center, Los Angeles turned in a nightmarish first period en route to a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks as the National Hockey League resumed play on Saturday after a lockout that consumed the season's first half.
Three first period goals by Chicago including an odd-angle slapshot by Patrick Kane to open the scoring on an early 5-on-3 power play sunk the Kings on an afternoon when emotions were soaring. Deflections, rebounds and lousy bounces all got past all-world goaltender Jonathan Quick, who shut Chicago out twice a season ago.
"He didn't have a good game," coach Darryl Sutter said. "Don't get too philosophical."
And don't sound any alarms.
"In a regular year, you have those five, six preseason games. That's where you're going to get your timing," captain Dustin Brown said. "Now it's going r...

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